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August 22, 2012

The Importance of Being Scheduled

When I first started writing this blog -- and even in my earliest days of blogging -- I had no concept of scheduling and how important it can be for a blog. Whenever I had an idea, I would write, and if I didn't, I would usually throw up a photograph and a little blurb about it.

As this blog has evolved, and I read ideas and advice from other bloggers, I began to realise the importance of having a schedule on a blog. At first, I would just post when I got around to it, but as my maternity leave continued, I was blogging four times a week -- I currently blog three times a week now that I'm back at work full-time -- and I had an actual schedule of what I would write, and on what day it would be posted.

Soon after I went back to work, the blog schedule started to suffer, and I believe the blog did as well. A lot of times, I didn't know what I was going to post until the night before -- sometimes even the day of, depending on my work schedule -- and I think my blog took on more of a scatter-brained kind of theme. I would have ideas, but if I didn't write them down immediately, or if I lost the paper they were written on, I was sunk.

I have now gone back to a blog schedule where I write out the dates that I will be publishing a post during that month, and writing my idea next to it. I'm not at the point yet where I have a schedule for months in advance, but I have started getting September's schedule ready, and already have a few of the days filled in.

The schedule is not set in stone, though. If something special comes up that I want to post that week -- while it's still relevant -- then I'm more than willing to do a little shifting around. It's not the end of the world if my recipe for muffins comes later on in the month because I want to do a blog post about going to the fair that week.

I feel good now that I am scheduling again. I feel like I am enjoying blogging again. It doesn't seem as forced, as strange as that sounds. I just wish I was this organised in other areas of my life.